El Pollo Loco Grilled Chicken Salad Review

The Grilled Chicken Salad at El Pollo Loco is a great alternative to the base fast food chicken menu. Here it is:

As you might be able to see, there are chunks of chicken breast similar to what is found in the fantastic BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad at Wendy's. In fact, I would say these two salads are interchangeable.

The salad at El Pollo Loco comes with the ingredients you'd expect. And that's a good thing as there's a lot goin' on in this salad. According to El Pollo Loco, the salad includes "Deeply marinated fire-grilled chicken, crisp shredded lettuce blend and authentic corn, pico de gallo salsa, Cotija cheese, corn tortilla strips and fresh cilantro make being a salad look good. Served with creamy cilantro dressing."

One thing I noticed is that this fast food salad seems to use sliced chicken breast that is different from what you get in the whole pieces of flame-grilled chicken. I could be wrong, but this seemed like a large, flat, sandwich-style chicken breast, sliced up for the salad topping. It's hard to imagine people back next to the grill expertly manicuring select chicken breast pieces just for salads. That said, I did try it a second time a week later and I guess it is the same as the whole pieces. It's just hard to tell.

In any case, this is a great fast food chicken salad. Like I said before, it's right up there with the one at Wendy's. So it just depends upon your mood: If you are craving a BBQ salad, go to Wendy's. For a Mexican spin, try this one.